Thursday, March 11, 2010

The Only News Report You'll Ever Need To Watch (NSFW)

My friend AreWeLumberjacks posted a brilliant video yesterday. This is my response to that post, found via The Volokh Conspiracy.

Caution. Some language may raise eyebrows in the office, home or school.



I watched the news on KTLA and KWGN last night. Been a while since I watched news generated in the newsrooms of television stations. What maroons.

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

A Glimpse of the North Coast

The video is known as a "B-Roll". For news organizations, it allows video producers to put pictures in the background of a story that may or may not be interesting, but the eye follows motion, so you watch.

The Oregon Military Department put together this B-Roll, so I thought you'd watch it...since it moves your eyes will follow the motion.

"Video includes soldiers and airmen with the Oregon National Guard hosting dignitaries from the Bangladesh Military during a week-long visit for the State Partnership Program, which is designed to share knowledge and foster cultural exchange. Key figures in video include – Maj. Gen. Raymond F. Rees, The Adjutant General, Oregon National Guard, Maj. Gen. Abdul Wadud, Principal Staff Officer of Armed Forces Division, Bangladesh, and Willis L. Van Dusen, Mayor of Astoria. During March 8 visit, Bangladesh dignitaries visited the Portland Air National Guard Base, Portland, Ore., and Camp Rilea on the Northern Oregon Coast."

Willis is the guy in the brown sportscoat among the uniforms. Catch him at the :43 mark. (Hit "embed" and re-start video to watch.)


Tuesday, March 9, 2010

"It's Teachers!"

Did you ever wonder how much different the movie Soylent Green would have been if Charlton Heston's character, Dectective Thorn, had found out that while soylent green was made from people, more to the point it was made of former school teachers?

"It's just school teachers! No need for alarm! It's teachers!"

Sort of a win/win.


I revise the end of a movie. School teachers revise the curricula so that the heroes of an age become the enemies of social progress. Henry Ford isn't a hero because he freed Americans from the tyranny of time and distance, he is a villain for transforming the laborer into an input of greedy capitalist repression. Christopher Columbus is villified for the introduction of European diseases and mercantilism to the peaceful peoples of the New World. Lewis & Clark were nothing without the selfless dedication of Sacajawea (which must now be pronounced "sah-kah-ga-way-uh" or somesuch, as to be mindful of the cultural diversity of the Expedition.)

David's Oregon Picayune thankfully reveals the mindset of our education class in this great state. Teachers, it seems, aren't able to achieve the mandates set for them for student performance. Their response? Add another year before students need to take the required tests.

"Jennings could not recall another state moving its high school exams to a higher grade, and said it suggests Oregon may be lowering its expectations for its schools or its students."

Gee. You really think so?

Maybe our kids should spend a little less time working on group projects, and a little more time on individual skills. Of course it will mean we'll need to pay our teachers more.

Monday, March 8, 2010

There's A Communist In The White House

When the strongest argument for contradiciting the statement "there's a communist in the White House " is, no, some of them are socialists, perhaps you're having trouble understanding our reluctance to embrace the whole Leftist/Progressive thingy.

Link to the video at Deep Roots In Tough Times.